


The Plan

by cardinalwrites



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 13x09, Canon verse, Coda, Destiel - Freeform, M/M, The Bad Place, spn coda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 00:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12947754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cardinalwrites/pseuds/cardinalwrites
Summary: Sam and Dean begin their trek through wherever it is that they found themselves inSPN coda to 13x09 "The Bad Place"





	The Plan

He could hear it, the silence. A year in Purgatory will train your ears to make out the noises in the dense fog of nothing. Sam wouldn’t know, not compeltely.

But Cas would.

If he’d just let Dean talk to him instead of always going through Sam these last few days.

“Friggin’ angels,” Dean muttered as they trudged through the underbrush.

“What?” Sam caught his words. “

Dean looked at his brother as he moved ahead. He shook his head. “Nothing. Any clue why we just stepped in Jurassic Park?”

“I... think this might’ve been Kaia’s bad place, but Dean––” Dean felt a hand on his back, causing the older Winchester to turn around. “We gotta figure this out, stop and look where we’re going, and you’ve got to talk to me.”

“Talk to you? I’m talking here, and I’m telling you we need to walk. This is the same vibe I felt in Purgatory man. Last time I stopped was when I got out wi––” He bit his tongue. The next few words that were about to come out of his mouth  would have betrayed him. _Last time I stopped was when I got out without Cas._

“Okay, fine. You take point and I’ll follow, but that’s the second time you’ve stopped yourself from saying something.”

Dean cut his way through a few more sets of branches, the world breathing around him. “I don’t have time for this, Sam.”

“Just like you don’t have time to talk about the fact that you pointed a gun at a girl?”

Dean turned, sensing a precense west of them. Something was definitely watching them.

“Fine, Sam, you wanna be chatty Kathy in literally the worst moment imaginable, I’ll take the fall on that one,” he grimaced. “Not my best moment.”

“Good to know you’re on the light side again,” Sam paused, listening. “And I’m not dense. I know this isn’t the best time.”

“Great, so stow whatever the hell it is you’re gonna say until we gank whatever the hell is on the other side of those trees,” Dean tilted his head to indicate the direction.

Sure enough, they were jumped a few moments after. Thankfully, the monster was alone and rogue, but not before he nicked Sam in the arm. The wound wasn’t deep, however.

They hiked through a few more miles of forest before they found themselves at an outrcopping, a river flowing on a stone bed. Garrish sounds could be heard every few miles, but thankfully they had yet to encounter the mother dinosaur Dean had started to expect at any moment.

“Dean, we should stop here. Rest a bit.”

“Fine, so what’s the play, Chris Pratt?” Dean moved to survey the area, but his mind was elsewhere, sharp and unfocused at the same time.

This river bed was too similar, too dark and off-color.

If Puragtory had an upside-down, this would be it.

Which would have put Cas right at this river bed, waiting. Waiting for him.

“Dean? Dean!” Sam called for him. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah, yeah, so talk,” Dean answered without looking at his brother.

“I’m not talking about the plan, Sam, I’m talking about these flashbacks and mood swings since Cas left.”

Dean didn’t respond. His mind did, but for the first time in his life, his words didn’t echo his brain.

“You know it. You know you’ve been off,” Sam started.

Dean pursed his lips, his eyes still on the water. “Yeah, and,” He didn’t phrase it like a question.

“And you’re off because he stopped answering you and only called me.”

“Sam, we’ve got bigger fish to fry than talk about Cas and my damn _off_ life right now.”

“Which is exactly why I’m bringing it up.”

Dean turned to look at him at the remark. He waited for Sam to continue. 

“Look, you and this conversation are about as far apart as home and wherever the hell we are right now,” He flexed his arm. “There’s a reason you’ve been acting off and it’s connected to Cas, but out here the reason you got out is because you found him, right?”

Dean didn’t respond. 

“You led us to this river, whether you knew it or not,” Sam indicated to the world around them. “You’re still looking for him, only another issue to all of this is that you’re uneasy about how he is in our world.”

“Because he’s ghosting, yeah.”

“Yeah, because he’s ghosting,” Sam parroted. “There’s a feeling there, or at least something that’s tying the two of you together, but why does him ghosting you bother you the most?”

“Because last time he did this, it wasn’t him.” Dean answered thruthfully. He could feel the prickle beneath his skin, the urge to move out of here. They weren’t safe, but the only way to get Sam to move would be to suck it up and talk. “Because he didn’t say a word before he left and the last time I talked to him he was asking for us to come see him. Then next thing I hear he’s fine and just searching and that-that feeling just suddenly feels like it’s behind lock and key?” Dean extends his arms out, exasperated. “We made a deal, Sam. Every day. One phone call. Just check up on each other if it’s no news.” He paused. “That flew out the window the day after the feeling changed”

Sam didn’t say anything. Instead he only nodded as Dean carried on. 

“This goes deeper than just a phone call a day,” even in the quietness of the world around them, Sam’s words might as well have ben a siren.

Dean stayed silent, instead moving his head to a tig snap just north of them. “Look, let’s just say you wanna keep harping on this. I’ll leave you out here if you do...but let’s say your little theory is right,” Dean gripped the angel blade in his hand. “And that the trick to getting out is to follow that feeling...then maybe that’s a plan I can get behind.”

He let the silence linger as he surveyed the area, taking note of more than one being lurking in the shadows. “Are we done?”

“Yeah, we’re done.”

“Great, we’ve got work to do.”

Dean’s eyes followed the black shape in the forest.

_Show me the way, Cas. Wherever you are._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr!](http://cardinalwrites.tumblr.com)!


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